Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In my City Limits article on the belatedly-released details regarding the spot rezonings at 870-888 Atlantic Avenue and 1034-1042 Atlantic Avenue (as well as other rezonings in the area), I didn't address one smaller but still important aspect of the agreement negotiated by Council Member Crystal Hudson, and with two nonprofit housing groups as signatories. The summary for each agreement states that, during construction, the developers will aim to involve local or M/WBE (Minority or Women's Business Enterprises) contractors, but there's a lot of wiggle room. They've "agreed to use good faith efforts to achieve local and/or MWBE participation in construction of the development equal to a minimum of 30% local businesses/employees and/or 10% of the total cost of construction with priority given to employees and businesses first from Community District 8, then Brooklyn-wide."  For the 1034-1042 Atlantic agreement, developed by EMP Capital's Elie Pariente, the...

According to the latest two-week Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update , "Demolition of 664 Pacific Street at the B15 site will continue during this reporting period." Indeed, it has, though 664 Pacific is the new address for the 27-story market-rate rental tower (with school at base) planned, aka B15, while 666 Pacific Street was the address for a three-story industrial building on the site. See photo at right. It has now been demolished, as shown in photos below sent by a reader.  The CBA and MWBEs Note the presence of A. Russo Wrecking, a WBE, women's business enterprise, which allows Greenland Forest City Partners to check off progress toward goals for MWBE (minority- and women-owned businesses). As I wrote back in 2010, a firm owned by a white female resident of Nassau County fulfills the official aspirations of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), but hardly represents the groups based in Central Brooklyn--however ...

The Black Institute, the "action tank" led by former New York ACORN head Bertha Lewis, last week released Not Good Enough: The Myth of ‘Good Faith and Best Efforts’/Report on Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses  (embedded at bottom). The report, launched with a press conference including several prominent black elected officials, has been seen as a challenge to Mayor Bill de Blasio by a long-time and continuing ally, Lewis, a founder of the Working Families Party and former head of New York and national ACORN. The report suggests several reforms, including: hiring a Chief Diversity Officer assigned solely to such programs  extending the M/WBE program to all 72 city agencies/bodies (from the current 34) assistance to ensure prompt payment and thus cash flow start-up capital from 1 percent of the state/city pension funds increased data and statistics on M/WBE participation. The report has been covered in the  Daily News ,  New York Observer ,  City...